Immersive Experience

 Hola friends! Hope you are doing well and have settled into 2024. I felt Jan was ok, was neither too fast nor too slow.

To update you on some of the interesting happenings from my end, here we go..

I am an art admirer, but only know a handful of artistes, definitely none of the contemporary artistes. When I visited my cousin in New York in 2001, he took me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I loved. I was attracted to a certain kind of art and he pointed out that they were all by Van Gogh. That's when I started reading about Van Gogh. Since Last year, the Real Van Gogh immersive experience has been travelling around India and I have been waiting for them to come to Chennai. Guess what, they finally are in Chennai!!

V and I had to go the first week itself for sure. I am totally camouflaged in this picture 😄

This was the view from our corner. We were there for an hour, and did not feel like coming away. It was an absolutely magical experience. We hope to go atleast once more

Baking

I finally got down to baking the 'Christmas' fruit cake! I never ever have baked it in time for Christmas, though I soak the fruits well ahead. This is an eggless, non-alcoholic version and here is the recipe I always use

Stitchy Update

Relatively lesser stitching in Jan due to life happening. I need to plan things better to be able to stitch some more. 

That's it from my end today dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!!

2023 - A ReCap

Is it already time to bid goodbye to 2023??!!  This year has been a mixed bag - slow sometimes and fast sometimes. Overall it has been an average year in all aspects

So, let's see the highlights from 2023

First and foremost, I completed 15 years of blogging!! That's right, isn't that amazing. When I started the blog, I had no clue that I will keep this going for so long. I have made many friends through the blog and learnt so much from this platform. So, here's to more blogging and more crafting

Travels:

We were blessed with 3 trips to Amritapuri this year! 

We had our annual get2gether with the cousins at Pollachi this year. It was a great one, though only for 2 days, as cousins from all over the world were able to come. Some of us were meeting after almost 5 years

Hobbies:

Beading

Some of the necklaces I mad this year. Hope to bead some more jewellery this upcoming year

Bakes

Snapshot of some of the bakes this year. Our favourite are the poornam muffin and the baklava cheesecake

Reading

..aaannd these are the books I read. My favourite was the entire Ponniyin Selvan series, absolutely brilliant

Cross Stitch

This is where I was in the beginning of 2023. I was 5 pages down

..this is where I am now currently. I have completed 11 pages and moving onto the 12th page now. I have about 40% more left. Hoping to finish this the upcoming year

So friends, that is the roundup of 2023 from my end. How has your year been? 

Wishing you and your family a very happy, very joyous and a brilliant year ahead. Wishing that the year brings the best of everything for all of us

Here's signing off for the year.. till next time.. Have a great rest of your holidays.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!!

Of festivals, sweets & stitching

Hope you all had a great Deepavali dear friends!! Ours was a quiet but a good one this. We had our get-together in the evening and burst some crackers. Crackers have become so expensive now though 

This is me in my new Deepavali saree, which is a hand painted kalamkari in tussar silk

This year I went light on the sweets. Usually I prepare all sweets myself. But this year I ordered sweets and savouries 

The only 'sweet' that I made was this Baklava cheesecake to take to our get-together and everyone just loved it. This was a perfect fusion of baking and ethnic 

Stitching has been slightly slower this month owing to a bout of viral fever 

So, here's the progress from the month of stitching Amma

So, dear friends that's the update from my end today. Till next time.. take care.. be happy. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Of Birthdays and stitching

Hola friends. It's festive season here and we are well into Navratri (which literally means 9 nights) where we worship the divine Goddess for 9 days. This year we have kept the golu and we have loads of golu hopping invites to do, which in turn mean loads of dressing up and loads of yummy food :). Will post pictures from all the festivities in my next post

We celebrated the man's 52nd birthday earlier this month..

..and he chose a coffee flavor cake. We decided to skip the frosting and go for a coffee glaze instead

On the stitchy side, I completed page 11 and into page 12 now

Here's the pic of when I moved the QSnap. Am totally thrilled with how Amma is coming up. 

Here's the ORTS from all of last month's stitching

..and this is where I am right now

So, that's the quick update from me today. Until next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Of Families, vacations, birthdays and stitching

Hola dear stitchy, bakey, crafty friends!! Am back after being MIA, from the blogger world, for 2 months. That's because life has been crazy busy in a good way. July/August is always like that when cousins and families, brother and family all come from several parts of the World and hence the busiest months of the year for us. By the end of August, they all return to their worlds and we to ours hungover from the holidays holding on to the energy till the next year

This year we all went on a very short trip and almost all of us cousins were there, making it even more special. We travelled to Pollachi, a short drive from Coimbatore. The resort where we stayed was a quaint little one and we had the resort almost to ourselves, so we could make all the noise without fear of disturbing other guests. 

There was beautiful river flowing right behind the resort and we had full access to it. A very scenic place and so many peacocks around

It was a very nostalgic trip - recollecting childhood memories, catching up with the new members in the family, getting to know them all better. Our kids enjoyed themselves too, with so much open space to run around and no fear of traffic etc

We celebrated a few birthdays too in August and September

August is V's birthday. I baked a pinacolada cake this time with fresh cream frosting

Dad turned 76 last week. As his birthday coincided with Ganesh Chathurthi this year, we decided to bake a Kozhakattai cake

Amidst all this I did manage to stitch some the last 2 months

That's the progress on project Amma. I have progressed 2 more pages since my last post and can say that I am a little more than half way through

..and here's the ORTS for the last 2 months

That's all that's been happening in my part of the world the last 2 months dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

Of Bakes and Stitches

I did not even realize that I missed last month's post, till it was time to post progress this month! That's how fast time seems to be flying

It's vacations everywhere but India, and many of my cousins and families are here for vacations. So, a lot of activities and get-togethers happening here

V's college re-opened in the 2nd week of June and she's in her 2nd year now. Amidst all this, we have been baking quite a bit

Here's a mango crumb bar that V baked 

Chocolate Zucchini bread has been on my to-bake list for a long time and ticked that off. I added lemon extract and some spice and topped with walnuts and blueberries. The flavours worked very well together. Here's the recipe link 

Time for a stitchy update

Here's the ORTS from last 2 month's progress. The jar has YTD progress

..and a full view before I move the qsnap. I am done 50% and am really excited how project Amma is coming up

That's from me today dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

Monthly Progress

Hello dear friends.. can you believe that February is almost over! Another new moon is gone and it's time for our monthly catch up

I am on a mission to clear up my pantry of existing baking supplies before buying new ones. First to be used up is coconut flour that's been lying in the freezer.  

 

First one in the series is coconut flour shortbread. I added mint extract and mint chips. Coconut and mint flavours work so well together. Here's the original recipe link - https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/coconut-flour-shortbread-recipe

On the stitchy front, the last month has been a great stitchy one. 

Here are ORTS from the month's progress

This is where my mystery project is. I have finished 6th page and half way through the 7th page. I guess you might have guessed by now that it's a picture to pattern that I am working on. I am thoroughly enjoying working on this

So, dear friends that's the updates from my side of the world today. Until next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir

A birthday and some stitching

Hello dear friends. It is the festival season and also season of birthdays in the family. It was dad's 75th birthday on the 18th and we threw a surprise party with a few very close relatives. Dad was totally overwhelmed and extremely happy

We ordered a blackcurrant cake which was absolutely delicious

V started college last month. She's now doing her undergrad in BSc psychology and she's loving it so far

After quite a long gap, V baked these delicious snickerdoodles - the recipe from my William Sonoma's Baking

I was able to catch up on some stitching this month

..and here's the Orts from the month's progress

..a closer look at the progress. I am almost done with the 4th page now. With the holiday season coming up, hope to get some more stitching done

That's the update from me tonight dear friends. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!

All About Vacations and some Stitching

It has been a very happening July and August in my side of the world. Being vacation time in all places but India, this is the time when cousins and family living in Dubai, USA etc come here for vacations. 

This year we went to Pondicherry for a week. While my niece attended an eye camp, it was a workation for me and vacation for the daughter and cousin

Our guest house was exactly opposite to the beach and we spent every evening there

some of the very different unique shells that we collected at the beach

We witnessed an absolutely brilliant sunrise

Being a sunset person, and being so close to the beach, how could I miss this wonderful scene

Some baking happened too. One new flavors that we discovered in London is Elderflower. We found this quaint little home run store at Borough market, where we got some Elderflower syrup

V baked this Elderflowe lemon bundt 

.. a slice of the cake and the extracts in the background

The daughter celebrated her milestone birthday last week and I baked her a lotus biscoff this year for her birthday

With so much happening, progress on my Mystery project has been quite minimal

This is the moving the QSnap picture

..and the current progress picture with the ORTS

So, dear friends, this is my story for today. Till next time.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Wrapping up 2020!!

It's time to say goodbye to the most memorable (?) year ever!! As bad and challenging as it has been, on a positive note, it has done a lot of good for my crafty progress. Here's what I have done all year

Reading

                                          

The most memorable books were Becoming and the Maeve Binchy ones. Erica James and Ava Miles are light and feel good books. Bomb girls was good too - my first ever war time read

Baking

These were the only baking that I did. Most of the baking was done by V this year 😊

Beading

We did quite a bit of beading this year, lightening the stash considerably 😄

Stitchy Finish

I can't believe that I actually managed 4 stitchy finishes this year - all thanks to the lockdown!! 

While we step into a brand new year, hope we are able to go back to some of the old normal while retaining some of the new normal. Let us be able to have a fine balance between the two. Hope we have a healthy, peaceful, prosperous year and have loads and loads of crafting 

With that signing off for this year dear friends. Till we meet next year.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

A Finish!

It was dad's 73rd birthday on the 18th. We had a small cake cutting at home with my brother's family joining us over zoom

We wanted to try a new flavor cake this time - use some recipe that we had saved but not tried yet. Dad is not a great fan of chocolate cake. So that was out. I had some mawa in the fridge and dad likes the Indian flavor. 

                                                        

                                            Eggless Goan Mawa cake with saffron buttercream frosting

Another cake V baked was this apple dates cake. Link to the original recipe is here - https://www.davidlebovitz.com/apple-date-cake-salted.../

                                                

The changes we made are - use whole wheat flour instead of apf; olive oil instead of butter; flaxseed powder instead of egg

And yay, I have a finish!!

Snowy Day by Lizzie Kate. I used 18ct Aida from my stash. All threads are anchor from my stash too. I do not have the shade numbers as that's how I got them from the nearby craft store. He had just kept them in a cardboard box and sold them all to me. So, some of the skeins do not have the numbers on them. I tried to pick the closest match based on colors

Here's the ORTS from last month's stitching. The jar has YTD 

I have not yet decided what to stitch next. Probably I will do some beading before the next stitchy project

So friends, that's the update from me today. Till next time.. stay safe.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir